


Just Give Me A Reason

by JilyCSLove



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Civil War tie-in, F/M, Fix It, break-up fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 18:13:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19156300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JilyCSLove/pseuds/JilyCSLove
Summary: Pepper deals with their breakup





	Just Give Me A Reason

**Author's Note:**

> Civil War tie-in

The breakup is hard on both of them. There is screaming. There is silence. There are tears on both of their faces. They hold each other and they stand on opposite sides of the room. But throughout it all there’s understanding in his eyes. 

In the end she leaves. After crashing on the couch in his lab for a couple of hours (they end up there around 3am, quietly talking with his head in her lap, her fingers in his hair. He falls asleep first, her soon after. She wakes alone, a blanket draped over her. 

“FRIDAY?” She yawns. 

“Mr. Stark is on his way to Avengers headquarters.”

And that’s that.)

 

She doesn’t see him in person for a month. They email and text and have the occiousonal video conference but it’s all very professional on both their ends. 

She arrives at the function and he is already there. Her eyes zero in on him and he’s already watching her and he approaches her before she has a chance to talk to anyone else. 

“Miss. Potts.” He hands her a flute half full of champagne and her eyes hold his as she takes a sip from it. 

“Mr. Stark.” And he gives her that half smile that melts her instantly. 

They never announced their breakup, just like they never announced they were together but all eyes appear to be on them. Pepper doesn’t care. She only cares about his dark eyes watching her. She’s missed them. She’s missed him. Far more than she ever anticipated. 

He comes to her place after and she leads him to her bedroom. She is tipsy, he is not, but his kisses are desperate. His fingers quickly doing away with her dress. 

And it is hard and it is fast and it is everything she swore she would never be with him. 

After, they both lay wide eyed in the dark. Her hand is on his chest, her fingers lightly brushing back and forth. They are both sweaty and her heart breaks with the words she knows need to be said. 

“This can’t happen again.” She finally whispers into the darkness and her hand slides off his chest as he sits up, putting his back to her. She sits up against her headboard, pulling her knees to her chest and pressing her chin down on them. He doesn’t say anything as he sits on the end of her bed rubbing his face. And so she asks, because she’s wondered it a few times during the past month, “Do you want my resignation?”

He turns quickly, “God no.” He rubs his face hard, “Fuck, Pepper, please don’t do that. Everything else in my life is fucked up royally, I can’t let the company crash.”

“It wouldn’t…”

He stands, grabbing his slacks and begins to get dressed, “Look, I have some Avenger stuff to deal with. I’ll just disappear for awhile. We’ll communicate only through Happy or your assistant. Email if absolutely necessary.”

She watches him silently from her place on the bed, as he slides his undershirt back on and grabs the rest of his clothes. He stops in the doorway for a moment, turning to look back at her and his eyes soften when they meet hers. 

“Take care of yourself, Pep.”

She has to clear her voice before answering but only manages to say, “You too.” before he is gone. 

 

And that’s how the next few months go for her. She works harder than she probably has before and doesn’t realize how much time has gone by until she receives a call from Rhodey on a Tuesday afternoon. 

“What the hell, Potts? I had to hear from someone else you two broke it off? What’s going on?”

Pepper sits back in her high backed chair and lets out a long breath, “I’m sorry. It’s been….” she sighs again “How are you?”

“Things are bad right now. Real bad. Are you free for lunch tomorrow?”

“I can be.” 

And that starts their biweekly lunch dates. They mostly avoid talk about Tony or the Avengers but sometimes it can’t be helped. 

“So what happened?” He asks her a month into their lunches, she’s just finished her salad and sits back in the both, her fingers tapping on the table. 

“Haven’t you talked to him?”

“He won’t discuss it with me. With anyone.”

Pepper closes her eyes, “I just… he just…” she opens her eyes and meets his dark ones, “I just couldn’t watch him kill himself anymore. I just… couldn’t.” her breath hitches and he reaches out, wrapping his fingers around hers. 

“Hey, I get it.” Off her look, he reassures her, “I do. Tony’s a hard man to love.”

She snorts, “Loving him isn’t the problem.”

“No. I suppose not.”

 

She drinks more than she should at the Bridal shower for one of her employees and texts him without thinking. 

_12:52a.m I miss you_

_12:54a.m. Miss. Potts, am I receiving your first ever drunk text._

_12:54a.m. Possibly._

_12:55a.m. I’m flattered. And I miss you too. More than you can even imagine._

_1:01a.m. I can imagine quite a lot._

_1:02a.m. I love you Miss. Potts. Please do me a favor and grab a water and some Motrin and put it beside your bed. If I were there I would do it for you._

_1:03a.m. If you were here…._

_1:04a.m. If…._

_1:06a.m. I love you too Tony._

She finds the texts the next morning and groans loudly when she reads through them. She considers sending an apology but decides against it. 

She doesn’t delete the messages either. 

Natasha calls her a week later and Pepper almost presses the ignore button but she knows that will prompt a visit. And she doesn’t need or particularly want a visit from one of the Avengers right now. 

“Have you seen what’s happening?” Nat greets her. 

Peppers eyes flicker to the muted television. There’s only stock market trade talk on, “Are you speaking of the Accords? Because I saw some of it on the news and Happy informed me of the rest.”

The thing with Happy was when Tony was actually in town, he went with him. When he wasn't he stayed with Pepper. She had tried to release him but he would hear of no such thing. And she loved him far too much to fight him too hard on it. 

“It’s bad, Potts. It’s really bad.”

“How is he?” She asks before she can stop herself. 

“Drinking again.”

“Shit.” Pepper closes her eyes, “Shit.”

“Yeah.”

They round up their conversation and make plans to get together when everything has calmed down. And Pepper sits in her office the rest of the afternoon, looking up anything and everything she can on the Accords. 

She finds out about Steve and Sam and Clint from Rhodey. She almost calls Steve but even though she does have his number they never were really close. Happy tells her about the fifteen year old kid Tony is recruiting and Pepper prays he knows what he’s doing.

Then she gets the call that Rhodey is hurt and Steve is on the run and Tony is broken. And she goes to them. To her family. Determined to fix them all. 

She’s at Rhodey’s bedside when he wakes. Tony is nowhere to be found. FRIDAY informs her he is in Queens. What the hell he has to do in Queens is unknown to her. She just knows he is ignoring her two phone calls and multiple text messages. Happy finally messages her that they will be arriving in the next half hour and so she leaves it at that. 

Rhodey groans just as she puts her phone away and she stands, leaning over the bed so he can see her. 

“Hey Pep.” He says then winces and she grabs his hand, squeezing his fingers, “How bad is it?”

And she can’t meet his eyes because it’s bad. It’s real bad. 

“Hey.” He attempts to squeeze her fingers and she meets his eyes again, her own full of tears, “It will be..”

She snorts derisively and pulls her hand from his to wipe angrily at her eyes, “If you were about to say it’ll be okay, then they have you on some pretty good pain meds there because it’s so far from okay. Not to mention it was one of our own who purposely put you here.”

“I’m pretty sure Vision wasn’t aiming for me.”

“Yeah well. He was aiming for someone. And last I heard you were all still the good guys.” She walks over to the window and glances back at him, “Seriously Jim, what the hell is happening? Why is this happening?”

“He did it for you.”

Pepper swings around, her mouth hanging open for a brief moment before she calmly closes it and steadily makes her way back to the chair by his bed. She sits in it, crosses her legs and smooths her skirt over her knees. 

“What exactly does that mean?”

“The Accords, going after Rogers,” he waves his hand, “He’s trying to make things right for you. So he’s more worthy of being with you.”

Pepper sighs, “It wasn't about him being worthy.”

Rhodey smiles, “Well, we both know that, but this is Tony we’re talking about.” They’re silent for a long moment then Rhodey groans as he attempts to move, “I just love how I’m the one in this bed and we’re still talking about Tony.”

“Well you know I always like to be the center of attention.”

They turn to the door and there he is in one of his suits, his sunglasses on, an eyebrow raised. Pepper has to physically stop herself from running to wrap her arms around him. She does stand though, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. 

“How are you, Chief?” He asks as he approaches from the other side of the bed. His eyes meet hers and he tilts his head briefly. 

“I mean other than I can’t move my legs and am probably paralyzed for the rest of my life?”

“Well, yes, obviously other than that.” 

And although Pepper chuckles with them, her eyes well up again. She feels a hand on hers and she lifts her eyes to meet Tony’s as he squeezes her fingers. She smiles softly for him. 

“Are you okay?” she mouths.

“Always.” he mouths in return.

 

 

It’s the next day and Rhodey is asleep when they finally talk. They are standing near the window, attempting to keep their voices low so not to wake their friend. The nurses informed them he had a rough night, nightmares and a lot of pain. 

He tells her about Steve. He tells her about his mom. She has no words for him so she just holds him tightly to her. 

“How did we end up so broken?” He says into her neck. 

Before she can answer Rhodey interrupts them, “I would like to point out I’m more broken then the both of you.”

They turn to him, neither one of them smiling and he offers a half smile, “Too soon?”

“Always.” Pepper says, they approach his bed together and she takes Rhodey's hand in hers, “But I would like to think we’re none of us, broken.” She takes Tony’s hand with her free hand and threads her fingers with his, she meets his eyes and sees so much hope there, “Just a little bent.”


End file.
